CNFT Alliance: Japanese Community!

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

The CNFT Alliance plans to offer English-to-Japanese translation services or vice versa to 1) CNFT projects based in English that wish to engage Japanese users; 2) CNFT projects based in Japan that wish to expand their target audience beyond Japanese-speaking communities.

With more than 125 million speakers, Japanese is among the most widely spoken language globally. Yet, most NFT projects on Cardano pose a language barrier to Japanese users as the vast majority of them are based in North America and Europe. We at the CNFT Alliance would love to help artists, game developers, and other brilliant minds behind CNFT projects to bridge the language gap between the continents.

We are aware of the complexity and nuances between languages when interpreting one to another, especially when the subject is technical in nature. We aim to provide translation that take into consideration the accuracy and precision of technical jargons in each language. We will always proofread translated work to ensure the high quality of delivery.

With our highly capable team with connections to the translator community, we strive to break down the language barrier between East Asia and the rest of the world, helping the community become more interconnected than ever.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

The CNFT Alliance addresses the challenge by accelerating the interconnectivity between East Asia and the rest of the Cardano Ecosystem. With our quality translation services, many CNFT projects will be able to reach farther beyond their native language speaking communities and engage users previously unreachable.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

The main challenge would be funding. We have many translator connections who are ready to provide the services, but funding is needed to keep these individuals employed. Though, this is why we are seeking Project Catalyst funding.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

-- Q3 of 2022 --

Hire on Japanese Translator

Fully Translate CNFT Alliance website

-- Q4 of 2022 --

Have translated at least 1 full NFT Project.

-- Q1 of 2023 --

Have translated at least 2 full NFT Project.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

It is difficult to provide a detailed budget breakdown for this proposal as it will depend on the number of projects that want translation.

Japanese translation costs: $7500

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Game Design: Alex is the head of Game Design and Co-Founder of the CNFT Alliance. He has worked as a creative director at Ubisoft's campus and as lead developer of Faith and Honor Barbarossa. He has considerable experience researching psychological and neurological sweet spots in game-based learning. With over 4 years of experience in game design, Alex is geared to bring the best gaming experience to Cardano!

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-cimpeanu-b9507a112/))

Marketing: Conward is the lead of marketing and co-founder of the CNFT Alliance! He has been within the Cardano Ecosystem for 3 years. He is the host of The Cardano Convo Podcast, and he is an avid gamer at heart. After noticing the increasing number of rug-pulls in the CNFT Ecosystem, he began putting together the ideas that would define the CNFT Alliance!

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conwardswift/))

Coding: Dirk worked for Ubisoft, founded two gaming studios as a Dev Lead, and is currently working as a Technical Architect. He is the go-to guy, well-versed in everything tech-related, with 20 years of experience!

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirk-potulski-71313428/))

Game Programmer: Simon Latusek studied in game design and worked as an application and videogame programmer for over 5 years and is proficient in a variety of languages including C#, C++, Lua and CIL as well as the Videogame engines Unity and Unreal. Worked previously with Alexander Cimpeanu on several projects including two titles with Ubisoft Campus and as Technical Lead on Faith & Honor Barbarossa at encurio. Further co-created the Harmony library for a high-level approach of altering compiled code in memory for .net framework applications at runtime.

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-latusek-094728143/)

Project Coordinator: Samantha has many years of experience managing projects ranging from small businesses to even city functions. It is these skills that she has honed over the years that will help keep all partners and projects within the alliance well informed and working smoothly!

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthacampbell1/)

Assistant Coordinator: Jye Tran gathered adequate experiences in his previous employment as Assistant of Sales to now assist Christian and Samantha with the coordination of the different teams and projects.

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jye-tran-918a08154/)

Narrative Designer: Christopher Smith is a highly experienced writer, and when he is not working on his writing company, Lazy Kid Imaginings, he is building out the questlines, storylines, and dialogue for many different games!

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-smith-783b6b93/)

Audio/SFX Designer: Rudi Veiguinha is an accomplished musician with over 10 years of professional experience in advertisement, for entertainers, in the videogame industry and as a solo artist. After his latest solo album release, he decided to focus exclusively on soundtracks for blockchain related videogames. In regards to this pursuit he achieved WWISE Certification and is currently undergoing advanced Certification regarding Integration with popular Videogame Engines.

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rudi-veiguinha-3a016710b/)

Artist: Dilara Bozkurt worked for years as a contract artist proficient in a variety of different art styles, settings and character types. Ranging from mood paintings over landscapes to character concepts she is capable of rapidly visualizing different concepts and ideas.

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dilara-bozkurt-2925a1188/%20as%20concept%20artist)

Producer: Christian Zehetmeier is the Head of Production of 3D Animation Studio Woodblock, working with Netflix, Universal, Riot Games and 343 Industries.

He is proficient in the management of multiple teams in a multitude of different projects across various timelines and will be responsible for ensuring that all teams have the relevant resources required to realize their projects.

(LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zehetmeier/)

Together, we have decades of Cardano and business experience, and our connection to translators can benefit the Cardano Ecosystem. We know that the Cardano NFT space can benefit greatly with our proposal, so we set forth to offer translation services through the CNFT Alliance.

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

Though we have a plan/roadmap to get the Alliance to a point of sustainability, we will, most likely, have to apply for further funding in future rounds.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

We know that timelines can have fluctuations, and this could happen with ours as well. That being said, we could use a more milestone based approach towards the ultimate goal of connecting the Japanese speaking community with the rest of the Cardano Ecosystem in the NFT space.

Though, specifically we would also be measuring:

• The number of users of the CNFT Alliance’s translation services.
• The number of projects that the CNFT Alliance’s translation services have helped boost their target audience.
• The number of users engaged by these projects that were not previously engaged due to language differences.

These metrics would be easily trackable as we follow up with every partnering project. The number of newly engaged users would be obtained through follow-up surveys and polls.

Importantly, we would be able to provide this information quickly and, in some cases, in real-time.

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

A broad spectrum of people across the Japanese community, coming together and forming teams to grow our ecosystem.

Overall, we’d use the metrics listed above to measure our levels of success. Furthermore, our ultimate goal is to help bring on board more talents from East Asia that may have been discouraged to enter the CNFT space due to language barriers. In the end, having a solid number of projects that have benefited from our translation services and hence expanded their community impact would constitute a great marker for success.

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

This is a new proposal on Project Catalyst.